Coco and her "Sweethearts" Update

Sorry for the lapse in mews about Coco and her kittens, but I was a bit anxious about the tiny black kittens chances and was pretty much focused on him (oh, and watching movies to pass the time up in the "kitten" nursery aka my bedroom). But finally Saturday, he had a day where he gained 9 grams instead of 2 to 5 grams and I think he will be fine!

Kittens should gain about 10 to 15 grams a day and when they were born, they weighed from 52 to 80 grams, with the little black one being the smallest. While everyone else was gaining the 10 grams a day, he was only gaining 5 grams and I could see the others growing before my eyes.

But I was very fortunate to have 3 1/2 days off work and made sure during the day that every 30 minutes or so, I would make sure he was nursing, even waking up in the night a couple of times to "attach" him to a nipple. He is strong and eager, and finally today he gained 21 grams in 24 hours, so I think we are over the 72 hour worry hump.


Our pet sitter's kids always pick out nicknames for the kittens (remember Bluberrie, Blackberry, and Razzberry?). Well, these kittens were born so close to February that they picked Valentine names--Cupid, Valentino, Cassanova, Amore' and Love Bug. Love Bug is the brown tabby and white; Amore' the black and white, Cupid the tiny black kitten and Valentino & Cassanova the two red tabby boys. (In both photos, Love Bug is under all his brothers!)

Here's a short movie of them nursing, with Cupid right up there in front!

Simply Sunday Morning

This is Furlinghetti and Lola, soakin' up the sunny Sunday sunbeams. It was grey and snowing yesterday, but blue skies today! Furli and Lola live with Slick, the Sphynx and their attentive maid, Kaye in Alexandria, Virginia.

Something came in the mail for us kitties!

What a nice surpurrize when mewmie walked in the house with a purresent for us! She said it was from Gracie and it was our special prize for winning the drawing for last week’s Fiona's Auction! Gracie personally picked out the gift and she even wrote us to ask us to send her a list of several of our favorite things and got her mewmie to take her to the pet store and she shopped away.


We told her we must be some of the rare CB cats that don't like Temptations, so to save all those for herself, but that we love real fur mousies and tinsel balls a lot! So we were furry excited to see what was in that package! Well, Gracie did good and got us all our favorite things and as you can see, we were very interested in each and every toy!




...and Brighton ran off with his favorite, saying Mine, Mine, Mine...as he raced upstairs with his treasure!

Wordless Wednesday

Something this sweet doesn't need words...just lots of Awwwww's and we couldn't wait til Thankful Thursday to repurrt the Mews!

Coco had her babies today, and as always, mewmie takes the mommy cats in to her day hunting place (the V.E.T.) during their last week of pregnancy, so she can keep a close eye on them.

Usually what happens is the momcats wait until about midnight to go into labor and keep mewmie up all night! But not this time.

Coco only had about 15 minutes of visible labor before the first kitten arrived at 12:35pm, then the next one arrived at 12:50, #3 at 1:00, #4 at 1:05 and then Coco rested a bit and had the last one at 1:25pm.

Some of the staff at work had not seen kittens birthed before and they all congratulated Coco on her wonderful mothering skills and our mewmie on her wonderful midwifery skills.

Right now, mewmie thinks they are all boys...and 3 people were hoping for a girl. But just wait til they open their eyes and mew at you...who wouldn't fall for that??

There are 2 red tabbies, 1 black, 1 brown tabby and white, and 1 black and white and mewmie hasn't weighed them yet (she forgot to take her gram scale to work and her scale is even more accurate than the one at the V.E.T.'s) but they are all nursing and active and that makes her very, very happy!

Tabby Tuesday

Coco had her Xray taken yesterday, and she is carrying 5 kittens, not 3 like the vet palpated when she was 21 days along. And as you can see by the photo below, taken a week ago, she is pretty round in the middle!

And guess what? There are five families waiting for a kitten from Coco!


Her due date is January 28th and keep your paws crossed she has an easy delivery and healthy babies! She is a good mommy and this is her 5th litter and she's never had any trouble, but mewmie said she just won't rest easy til they have arrived, safe and sound!

Cat Congress BiPurrtisan Mews

CAT CONGRESS MIRED IN SUNBEAM (Click on link for a hahameow article!)

We B Scribblin' Frootbats!

We are a little late in posting that we received the Superior Scribblers Award from Loki at LOKITHECAT'S BLOG last week, and Oh my Cod, we are purrin' proud!

The Superior Scribbler Award was started by The Scholastic Scribe to celebrate their 200th post. To read more about the Superior Scribbler Award click HERE.

Thank you Loki!

As with every award, there’re some rules that need to be followed:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must pass the Award on to 5 deserving blogger friends.

2. Each Superior Scribbler Award recipient must link the author and name of the blog from whom he/she received the award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler Award recipient must display the award on their blog and link to the post which explains the award.

4. Each is asked to visit the post which explains the award and add their name to the Mr. Linky List.

5. Each Superior Scribbler Award recipient must post these rules on their blog.

It was hard to pick just five of the fabulous blogs we follow, but we choose these deserving blogs to pass this award on to:

Dante at All About Lacocoon Dante

Whimpurr and the cats at Whimpurrs Whim

Tom, Tama-Chan, Sei-Chan and Yuu-Chan at The Poupounette

Blackie, Tannie, Miss Simba, Little Bunny and Daisy Jiji at Whippy Curly Tails

Kismet and Sophie at The Blog of a Big Man Cat

National Dress up Your Pet Day?

Not something a cat would come up with, we are sure about that!! We heard from the Kool Kitty Krew that it was NDYP Day, so here's Kiki, in an actually very comfortable outfit (though the fevvers look like they are annoying her!)

Wordless Wednesday

This is Beauregard (he's black) and Napoleon (he's orange) watching their favorite channel on "Cat TV" and glad they are inside, out of the chill and blustery wind! They share their home with Don and Bob in Baltimore, Maryland

Tabby Tuesday...

This is Furrydance Duncan, who loves warm towels right out of the dryer, especially this time of year! He shares his blankies with 2 attentive humans, Mike and Abby in Maryland.

Caturday Saturday

Well, our mewmie, who planned ahead before she went on vacation to Oregon, and had a photo a day while she was away, has finally taken a moment to take some photos of us today, with the warm sun shining in, the snow melting and life is good! This is a photo of our mewmie, all bundled up, smiling cuz she's on vacation in Orygun!


Everyone has been asking how President Coco's feeling now she is expecting again. She is doing just fine and according to Teri, looks rather plump for only being 5 weeks along, so she is wondering if there are more than 3 buns in the oven for Madame Coco. During her last week of pregnancy, mewmie will take Coco in to work (yes, her day hunting place is the V.E.T.'s) with her every day so she can monitor her closely and also the vet will take an xray to determine how many babies Coco is carrying. Here is a photo of Coco and her "Baby Bump"...


Teri moved a rocking chair up from the basement and put a cozy cat bed in it and right away Disco and Brighton burrowed in it and put on their most photogenic smiles for the next shot...


Disco is being very good, with no signs of spraying while mewmie was away on vacation or on anything since she got back (he's been known to spray her suitcase after a trip), and even our petsitter said the four of us seem very content and happy, too. He is still on anxiety meds (Paxil) and mewmie is happy he is behaving himself!

While Teri was taking photos of us, Kiki decided that a good rabbit kick to Teri's knee would be fun. Teri tried to catch her mid-kick, but failed...but in the next photo you can see the glee in Kiki's eyes! Funny, but our favorite kicker toys are made out of old jeans...hmmm, is that like giving a puppy an old shoe to chew on and then getting mad when it chews up your Choo's?


And since it was a pretty slow week at work, Teri took Sammy, the stud cat, in to work with her for his yearly exam and lab tests and to have his teeth cleaned, as last year the vet said they needed attention. Well, mewmie printed out his chart and realized he hadn't had a dental prophy since 2006! She was embarrassed and expected the worst as his breath was stinky.

But she didn't realize how bad things were in there, especially as he had gained 8 ounces since last year and looked good. When the vet got him under anesthesia and started probing his gums, she said she thought he might need a full mouth extraction! The vet recommended having her partner take a look at his teeth and maybe he would even need to go to the Dental Specialist! So, while he was asleep, they cleaned his teeth and extracted 2 incisors (the very small teeth in front) then let him wake up.

So the next day, she took him back in to work and using a different anesthetic protocol, since his BP got a bit low, then he tried to wake up during the procedure yesterday, the vet examined him and said that yes, almost all his teeth were affected and once was close to abscessing! But she said he didn't need to go to the specialist as she was confident that she could handle his issues.

Because he needed extractions on both the upper and lower jaw, the vet elected wisely to split it into 2 procedures, as the lower jaw is fragile and removing 2 canine (fang) teeth on the lower jaw at the same time is risky as it could fracture or be very unstable. So he had 10 teeth extracted, all of his upper incisors; his 2 right canines, and some of his pre-molars. For now, the molars look healthy.


He has a fentanyl pain patch on that lasts 5 days, will be on antibiotics for a month, when he will go back and have 1 more canine and a lower premolar extracted. Our mewmie just feels terrible that she didn't get him in sooner for his dental and that a year had passed and more since his last dental! And it just goes to show, that sometimes even a visual exam of the mouth can't show you all the problems that lie hidden under the gumline!

Fortunately, he has no stomatitis or other issues (like Fiona) so once he heals up, he will be happy and comfortable again. He will have a silly smile though, with just one Fang! And you can see in the photo below, of Sammy resting in his heated bed, that the right side of his face (where his fangs used to be) looks different than the left side.


You can see he is drooling a little still, and his eyes are a little unfocused too, from the pain meds, but he is eating and head bunting and Teri's giving him lots of kisses on the top of his head, where it isn't sore!

Thinking of Fiona, and all the mouth problems her breeder sent her off with, our mewmie told her vet that even if she decides to retire Sammy this year and stop breeding, she never would send him off to his new home without taking care of all his medical problems first--that's the only ethical and compassionate thing to do!

Toesies Tuesday!

This laid-back fellow is Henry Oliver Mastillone, who's photo has graced our blog before (remember, he was Buttercup when he was a baby here at Furrydance). Looks like he's a real Lounge Lizard, hahameow!

And here is something we think all snuggly cats would like, from our friend at Just Me Jill, her cute print fleece beds with matching toy! Cat Napper Fleece Beds